Lemon Birthday Cake

Whenever birthdays roll around, I am always at a loss at what to bake. It's too easy to just reach for the boxed chocolate/vanilla/funfetti cake mix and call it good.  If I am to spend all the work in baking a birthday cake from scratch, I want one that tastes much, much better than the boxed mix variety.

Luckily, today I had plenty of time + the perfect cake recipe + the necessary ingredients on hand. Of course, testing this recipe for the first second time, I spent waaay too much time (~3.5 hours) and used waaay too many pots/pans/bowls. My kitchen sink is piled high with dirty dishes as we speak. Yet, hopefully I don't scare you away from making a real made-from-scratch cake! With practice, you and I can streamline the process and whittle down on time and pans used.

A few tips:

• I didn't have buttermilk on hand. For 1 cup buttermilk, I substituted 1 cup milk + 1 tablespoon lemon juice. White vinegar can also be used instead of lemon juice. 
• My cake layers turned out dome shaped, rather than flat. In the future, I would cut the cake layers to be flat, so assembling the cake would be easier and the finished product more presentable.

Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Filling and Lemon Icing
makes a 9 inch cake
modified from Nathan's Lemon Cake (www.myrecipes.com) and Ina Garten's Lemon Curd (www.foodnetwork.com)

Cake
Flour, for dusting
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon rind
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Lemon Curd (makes about 1 1/2 cups)
about 2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 cup sugar
1/8 cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt

Lemon Icing
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare 2 9-inch cake pans by coating with cooking spray and dusting with flour. 
2. Combine 2 cups flour, baking powder, baking, soda, and salt.
3. Beat granulated sugar and 1/2 cup butter in large bowl until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, beat well after each addition. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar/butter mixture. Beat in 2 tablespoons of lemon zest and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice. 
4. Pour batter evenly between the 2 cake pans. Tap pans sharply to remove air bubbles. Bake for 32 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool cakes completely. 
5. Lemon Curd: Combine sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon zest in food processor; pulse until lemon zest is finely minced into sugar. Cream butter and beat in sugar/lemon mixture. Add eggs, lemon juice, and salt; mix until combined. Pour mixture into saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool or refrigerate. 
6. Lemon Icing: Combine powdered sugar, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1 tablespoon lemon zest, and 1/4 cup lemon juice. 
7. Place 1 cake layer on a plate and spread lemon curd filling on top of cake. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread icing over top of cake. Store cake in refrigerator.